The 2nd Circuit US Court of Appeals has ruled that recording an in-person conversation without the knowledge of all parties is only a violation of federal wiretapping law if the person making the recording intends to use the recording for illegal purposes. At least in the states that do not have explicit laws against recording cops, this should nullify the abuses of wiretapping laws against people recording in public.

The settlement follows a landmark ruling last August by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, declaring that the First Amendment protects the right to record police carrying out their duties in a public place...

"The law had been clear for years that openly recording a video is not a crime..."

The court's opinion made clear that people cannot be arrested simply for documenting the actions of police officers in public...

"The First Amendment includes the freedom to observe and document the conduct of government officials, which is crucial to a democracy and a free society."

A District Court judge in Goffstown, New Hampshire has dismissed a criminal charge against a Weare man for recording his conversation with a police officer during a traffic stop. Judge Edward Tenney followed a recent First Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Boston in Glik v. Cunniffe in ruling that William Alleman was within his constitutional rights when making an audio recording of Weare Police Officer Brandon Montplaisir during the traffic stop on July 10, 2010.

WASHINGTON -- A police officer can't pull you over and arrest you just because you gave him the finger, a federal appeals court declared Thursday. In a 14-page opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that the "ancient gesture of insult is not the basis for a reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation or impending criminal activity."

The Supreme Court has refused to hear any new Guantánamo appeals even though half of the men being held were cleared for release five years ago. Critics of Monday’s decision say it leaves the fate of prisoners — many of them long cleared for release — in the hands of a conservative D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has constantly sided with military prosecutors and refused to order the release of any prisoner. The high court also refused to reinstate a lawsuit by former "enemy combatant" José Padilla against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

A federal appeals court has struck down the Defense of Marriage Act – Congress's key legislation to block gay marriage – as unconstitutional in a ruling that will propel the issue to the supreme court. The Boston-based first district appeals court upheld a lower court decision that gay marriage is a matter for individual states to decide and that the federal government does not have the authority to deny recognition of same-sex unions.

A 3-year-old federal law that makes it a crime punishable by up to a year in jail to falsely claim to have received a medal from the U.S. military is unconstitutional, a divided federal appeals court panel in California ruled yesterday.

Can law enforcement enter your house and use a secret video camera to record the intimate details inside? On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unfortunately answered that question with "yes."